Foreclosure Prevention Act For Whom?

Ok, call me crazy but I thought a foreclosure prevention bill is suppose to be designed to help average folks stem off foreclosures. So will someone tell me how a foreclosure prevention bill would contain bail-out money for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries? What do these clowns in Washington have to do to prove to the American public where their loyalties lie. Why is it that when average Americans seek help from their government they are treated to: rely on capitalism and the free enterprise system, but when these CEO’s, who get million dollar bonuses whether their companies succeed or not, make bad business decisions it is ok for the government to bail them out. Who says we are capitalist? I guess the poor are, but the rich sure as hell aren’t.

WASHINGTON — The Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. But while a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks — for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders.

The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington.[1]

These representatives of the people have made the argument that they don’t want to bail-out consumers who have made bad credit choices. Let’s say for the sake of argument that some mom and pops did overextend their budgets and purchased homes a little out of their budgets. These people made bad decisions concerning thousands of dollars, while these CEO’s have made bad decisions in the millions of dollars. I can never understand how so many Americans have bought into the false narrative that the government safety net for them is bad, but that it is ok for corporations. It is this same mentality that allowed so many Americans to bite the bullet during the Depression while their rich counterparts continued to live high on the hog. We are being treated to a similar situation today, while many Americans are facing dire economic straits the hedge-fund managers, CEO’s, and other Wall-Streeters have not only lost any buying power they have actually increased their wealth.

Congressional Democrats are also hearing from consumer advocates and other groups who say that the Senate bill does little to help Americans in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

“The Senate legislation gave corporations and Wall Street billions in tax breaks,” Terence M. O’Sullivan, the president of the Laborers International Union of North America, said at a news conference on Tuesday to denounce the bill.

“Tax breaks for corporate home builders won’t help stabilize the housing market, won’t create jobs and won’t prevent a single foreclosure,” he continued. “If anything, this multibillion-dollar windfall will make things worse.”[2]

It doesn’t seem to matter who is in the White House or who is in the majority in the House the results are the same. The moneychangers continue to rob from the public coffers with little resistance or oversight from those elected to protect us. Instead of bickering about who is bitter and who isn’t, who has more experience, or who is out of touch maybe our candidates could discuss how they are going to deal with coming economic meltdown and the continuing transfer of wealth from the average American to the super-rich. What a campaign about issues? God forbid.

Senator McCain has made it clear that he has no intention of changing course on the war or the economy. And instead of focusing on the real enemy of the American people the Democrats are arguing about the most insignificant things in an effort to distance themselves from each other. They need to be distancing us from the ill-fated policies of Bush and his clone McSame. But who wants a campaign that deals with issues, when we can have the “Desperate Candidates” soap-opera? In the meantime the folks who need foreclosure relief the most will lose out to the likes of American Airlines, Goodyear, and General Motors all of whom I guess are subject to foreclosure.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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Shrinking Middle-Class; Shrinking Labor

There has been much talk lately about the state of the middle-class, the insecurity of workers, and the flat-lining of wages in America. Much of the debate has revolved around the changes in the make-up of our labor force today. It has been erroneously reported that the shrinking of wages and of the middle-class is due to our no longer being a manufacturing society and due to out-sourcing. While this provides a convenient foe, it does not accurately depict the situation. There is a direct correlation between the flat-lining wages and the shrinking middle-class with the reduction of the labor movement in America. The only groups who have seen real growth in wages the past few decades are groups who are represented by unions. If this is true, then why are unions and the labor movement not more powerful and vibrant?

The reason is simple, corporate America and their Washington whores have gutted the labor movement in America. The only defense that middle-income folks had against the big money lobbyists and government thieves were the unions. The unions allowed the workers to pool their resources to be able to fight against the influence of corporate America. They provided cover for and contributions to politicians with the courage to stand up to corporate America. Unions for many years were the driving force behind the increase in the standard of living for all working Americans, not just their union members. Unions allowed the development of a strong middle-class which is essential to a thriving economy and a vibrant democracy. It was the unions that guaranteed their workers an honest wage and a secure job environment. How many of today’s workers cite job insecurity as a major concern with the economy?

While the unions provided many positives for their members, they also provided excesses for their leaders. I would be remiss and disingenuous if I only extolled the positive without the negative, there were many instances of abuse of power in many unions by leaders. However, that abuse of power is not because of unionism, isn’t it more because of a human frailty; greed? The problem is that corporate America began a campaign decades ago to destroy the labor movement in America, the labor movement through unions offered the only protection of the American workers against the type of abuse that they are suffering today. With the help of their “political allies” in Washington, corporate America has used the broad brush of union corruption and legal defeats to cripple the unions and the labor movement in America as a whole.

The great sit-down strikes and labor uprisings in the 30s and 40s brought our nation close to real democracy when the voices of the majority, American workers, was heard loud and clear. Corporate thugs, police agencies, and federal troops openly murdered workers and their families. The corporate media supported those actions, even calling for hanging of labor organizers. Unfortunately, labor leaders mistakenly accepted the passing of the National Labor Relations Act [NLRA] as remedy. Nothing more than deception, the Act reaffirmed the Corporation's superiority over the Constitution and made the criminal behavior by employers, labor violations, effectively undermining rights our founders sought to give. Each time labor stood up and mobilized, the Corporation, with the aid of congressional pimps and the corporate media, passed new labor acts to beat down the rights of workers. A prime example was the passage of Taft-Hartley.[1]

Using PR firms and restrictive organizing regulations supported and sponsored by the politicians, corporations have created an atmosphere of appeasement and apathy for today’s workers. Many of today’s “high tech” workers have been brainwashed to believe that the cause of labor no longer applies to their concerns. I have been at many tech jobs where the younger workers have blamed labor for the loss of industry and jobs. Many of today’s workers do not believe that labor is relevant anymore. There is only one small problem with this thinking, as the unions have shrunk the disparity between the salaries of the average worker and the top executives have reached all-time highs. Are we to believe that this is a coincidence? Correspondingly, the wealth of our nation is also being concentrated in to fewer and fewer hands. The American worker has been sold a bill of goods concerning the labor movement and its relevancy to their lives.

Without a strong labor movement including unions the American worker is at the mercy of greedy corporate executives and money grubbing politicians. The call of the union is just as relevant today as it ever was, there is strength in numbers and solidarity. It is foolish for today’s worker to rely on the benevolence of corporations, just as it was foolish for their grandparents to do so. Today’s worker must not buy into the hype that the dynamics of our economy and industries have outgrown the need for labor and unions. If nothing else the proof is in the fact that corporate executive compensation has increased at the same time workers compensation has decreased or flat-lined. Never in our history has there been disparity on the scales we are now witnessing.

These are outcomes of the long, unfolding crisis, not root causes. Despite the novelty, but obvious seriousness, of the current debate, U.S. Labor did not arrive at this point of historic impotence in just the past several years. This downward spiral has been in process for decades. Workers at the base became painfully aware that corporate capital was breaking the so-called "social contract" many years ago. Their initial anticipation that leaders of the nation's unions might devise appropriate strategies to resist or blunt the assault or that, in many instances, their own local determination to fight back would be welcomed and fully supported was one of the first casualties of this new chapter of class warfare being written in America.

Unabated disinvestment, corporate whipsawing of one plant's workers against another's, job blackmail, often with union leadership complicity, and a magician's trunk full of solidarity-busting workplace reorganization schemes had, by the mid-1980s, become the backdrop for the renewed concerted employer aggression. Most labor bureaucrats were either untrained and/or more often unwilling to venture out of their comfort zones to lead struggles against this eviscerating reality.[2]

[1] http://www.labornet.org/news/0106/wvwarzon.htm
[2] http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/tucker210705.html

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Who Says We Don’t Have Socialized Medicine

Who says we don’t have socialized medicine in America. We have it, just not the way the rest of the world does it. You see in other countries the citizenry are covered by national healthcare, in America it is the corporations that are being covered by Medicaid and Medicare. I have never been able to understand how with the massive buying power of the federal government I can get better prices than they can. If anyone still believes that Washington is not teeming with thieves, stories like these should dispel any doubts. Everyone wants to cut government spending so long as it doesn’t affect them, so what if the country is going broke. Everyone agrees that the costs of Medicaid and Medicare are skyrocketing and that the system is on the brink of disaster and rather than businesses joining with the rest of America in trying to reduce the costs and solve the problem, we get this instead.

Despite enormous buying power, Medicare pays far more. Rather than buy oxygen equipment outright, Medicare rents it for 36 months before patients take ownership, and pays for a variety of services that critics say are often unnecessary.

The total cost to taxpayers and patients is as much as $8,280, or more than double what somebody might spend at a drugstore.

The high expense of oxygen equipment — which cost Medicare over $1.8 billion last year — is hardly an anomaly.[1]

The politician’s answer to our spiraling health care costs is to reduce the rolls and the services for the patients, instead of reducing the prices of the suppliers. The sad thing about all of this is that it is not new or secret, everyone on Capitol Hill knows that this price gouging is going on. In the prescription drug bill it was actually legislated into it that the American public would have to pay the highest prices available and could not use the tremendous buying power to negotiate lower prices. There is something seriously wrong with our government and our programs and the solution is not to shut them down or privatize them it is for the government to exert the control they were elected to do.

The wingnuts will point to this story and say this is why we need to get government out of healthcare, instead of dealing with the real issue which is the profiteering of their corporate benefactors. Why is government healthcare good enough for the government, but not good enough for the rest of America? If government healthcare is so awful why aren’t the Congress passing legislation for them to opt out? The truth is that it is hypocritical for them to denounce the same system that they use for themselves. It is hypocritical for them to want to cut people and services, instead of cutting the gouging that is taking place.

Welfare only seems to be good for the corporations, it is okay for companies to bill the government for millions of dollars of overcharges, but it is a national outrage for a single mother to get a few hundred dollars a month for her children. The people of this country have allowed the wingnuts to define the agenda and to demonize the long history of charity that is fundamentally a part of America.

Other companies that sell medical equipment have also flourished. More than 114,000 home medical equipment suppliers billed Medicare last year, according to HME News, an industry newsletter. Over 1,500 of them collected more than $1 million. One of the largest oxygen equipment suppliers, the publicly traded Lincare, collected over $789 million from Medicare last year, according to corporate filings.

Large private investment firms have also jumped in. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a $16 billion private equity group, has invested in numerous companies that profit from Medicare. One of its executives is Thomas A. Scully, who ran Medicare for almost three years, until 2003.

The government’s overall bill for Medicare soared last year to an average of $8,568 per beneficiary, up from $5,522 in 1999, an increase that outpaces inflation by 34 percent.[2]

The problem is not as the wingnuts have framed it that too many people are being helped and they are undeserving, the problem is that there are too many companies lining their pockets with government money. The rise in cost for these programs is not primarily due to increased participation, but due to increased cost per patient. These costs are a direct result of a lack of oversight by the government. The reason wingnuts want to keep the government small and remove government oversight agencies is so they can pilfer the public without fear or conscious. The fewer inspectors and overseers the less chance of getting caught. The sad part is that they have managed to convince enough of the public to buy into their false logic.

Today you have poor and middle-class people spouting wingnut talking points, seemingly unaware that it is them who will be hurt by the cuts they are screaming for. I don’t know how they did it, but the 30 years of concentrated effort has been paying dividends for the conservatives. Before long you will have the middle-class calling for an end to Social Security to save a few tax dollars. There is socialism in America, though it’s only reserved for the wealthy.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/business/30golden.html?hp
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/business/30golden.html?hp

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Big Tobacco vs. Kids

Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, said, “Today’s debate comes down to this: Do you favor big tobacco or children?”[1]

This quote was in reference to the Children’s Health Care Bill recently passed by the House. This is what I don’t like about politicians, Republican or Democrat, here they have an opportunity to do something worthwhile and beneficial for many of the nation’s children and to redirect our priorities and they do it how? As usual by raising taxes, I don’t have a problem with paying taxes. I believe that in order for our society to provide a safety net and to provide vital services we have to pay taxes. The problem I have is that right now we pay enough taxes, having the money is not the problem in Washington. The problem in Washington is how those tax dollars are allocated. So rather than moving some of that money from the bottomless military budget, the corporate subsidies, or any other program that would actually signal a change, they just raise more taxes.

Now of course because they are taxing the evil tobacco companies it should be done without much resistance. The tobacco companies are an easy target and are always good as a whipping boy for politicians, but this belies the problem. The problem is how the money is being raised, not from whom. The taxes you levy against tobacco will not be paid by the tobacco companies; it will be paid by consumers. Since most poor people are under stress, guess who smokes more? So you are taxing the poor to pay for health care for the poor?

By a vote of 225 to 204, the bill passed, with support from 220 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Ten Democrats joined 194 Republicans in voting against it. The bill would provide coverage for more than four million uninsured children in low-income families, prevent cuts in doctors’ Medicare payments scheduled for Jan. 1 and raise the federal cigarette tax 45 cents a pack, to 84 cents.[2]

There is such a lack of courage in Washington today. If I thought there was a snowballs chance that big tobacco would have to pay the increase I would be all over it, but the truth is they won’t and these guys know it. In this way they can look tough on corporations and yet not be doing anything. Everybody knows people are going to smoke regardless, it is an addiction. Raising the cost of it is only putting a hardship on the consumers, not the tobacco industry. But isn’t it a good thing, it will make people quit smoking? No, it is a bad thing just like all the other laws that infringe on our right to choose. I don’t use seatbelts and I shouldn’t have to, if I want to drive that way it is my choice. As long as my choices do not infringe on the rights of others, so be it.

When it was created in 1997, the children’s program focused on families with incomes less than twice the poverty level. But many states have obtained federal waivers to cover children with somewhat higher family incomes, because those families cannot afford private insurance.

More than eight million of the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries are in plans offered by companies like Humana and United Health. Since December 2005, enrollment in private plans has shot up 40 percent.

On average, the Congressional Budget Office says, Medicare pays the private plans 12 percent more than it would cost to cover the same people under the traditional Medicare program. The House bill would eliminate the differential, saving $50 billion over the next five years and $157 billion from 2008 to 2017.[3]

Here are the good parts, it will expand the coverage for children and it will stop the over payments that the privatization of Medicare that Bush and his cronies tried to expand. Its funny how with all the talk of private insurers being more efficient and cost effective, that it costs more to use a private insurer than Medicare. This is a case of more “sound bite” logic that doesn’t pass the smell test. The reason we want to privatize is not for efficiency or savings, it is to give more of our tax dollars to the corporate whores who patrol Capitol Hill. What happened to free enterprise and capitalism? These are the same guys who berate the developing countries for not allowing free enterprise and they get more government handouts than anyone. Sometimes the hypocrisy with these guys gets to the point of the absurd.

Yes, let’s give health insurance to more Americans especially children, but let’s do it with the funds we already have. You’re telling me we can give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest, but we can’t find any money for health insurance for our kids? No Mr. McDermott the question isn’t big tobacco or children, the real question is tax cuts and corporate welfare or children? Stop picking on the little guys and go after the people you were elected to watch over.

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/health/policy/02health.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

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Taking It to the Streets

WASHINGTON, July 5 — Support among Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq policy eroded further on Thursday as another senior lawmaker, Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, broke with the White House just as Congressional Democrats prepared to renew their challenge to the war.

“We cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress,” said Mr. Domenici, a six-term senator who has been a steadfast supporter of the president.

Thus Mr. Domenici joined a growing number of Republican voices in opposition to the war just as Senate Democratic leaders are readying plans to put the political and policy focus back on Iraq next week.[1]

What is it going to take to for us to get fed up enough to take this government back? I’m not talking about the fed up of sitting behind these screens and complaining and analyzing as this country is sent crashing in flames. As this piece illustrates even those who know this war is wrong and know that it is a no-win situation still want to continue the death march.

It is obvious that these guys (Democrats & Republicans) are not going to stop this. It is no longer about elections, we had an election. Anybody remember that? Where the majority of Americans voted to end this war; yet it continues. While we wait on the wheels of politics to turn; more and more Americans and Iraqis are dying and for what purpose? Is our presence in Iraq making it a safer place or a better place? Who can continue to back this argument with the overwhelming evidence that we are not doing either.

No my friends, it is time to take action to organize and to put pressure on these politicians. It is time to say enough is enough. How can the vast majority of people in a democracy be against something and yet it continues to fester. This thing is festering like an infected sore on the soul of America and the more we pick at it the more infected it becomes. It is time for direct civil action against the war-mongers and war profiteers that continue to feed the war machine with bodies of our sons and daughters, the bodies of Iraqis. It is time to shut down this government that has refused to listen to and follow the will of the people. It is time to make it plain in no uncertain terms that we have had enough of the lies and deceit.

We need to start putting together city by city, state by state, the mechanisms to carry this message to the street. We can no longer be content with the small rallies staged in individual cities and towns; we must go directly to Washington. We must go with the strength that cannot be ignored. As long as we silently stand by and watch the carnage we will continue to be ignored.

I have to give it to these guys they have gotten smarter at this; we no longer have the daily pictures beamed to our homes of the violence that is Iraq. We no longer have the daily visions of the maiming and injury that we had for Vietnam. They learned not only from Vietnam, but also from the civil rights movement. When those pictures of Black people being hosed, beaten, and attacked by dogs were sent into the homes across America, the outrage could not be contained. I guarantee you will never see pictures like that again on television. These guys know that those images had power; they motivated a nation to stand up and say enough. It was the same with the war pictures from Vietnam. Now what do we see these nice little “smart bomb” video game images of precision killing. We no longer see the real visions of war and you know what we are ok with that. It makes American Idol and Desperate Housewives go down easier. Gone from our senses are the visions of little Asians kids running down the street with napalm burning their skin off or G.I.s getting limbs blown off. Yes sir, gone are the good ole days of real war footage, the kind that would make you lose your appetite for dinner. The kind that would make you want to put down the remote, the mouse, the cell phone and do something. These images that kept us awake at night, they did because we knew that the violence was being carried out in our name.

Let’s have a good old fashion peace concert in Washington on the mall. It’s time we showed these clowns who’s really in charge and these kids how changing the world is done. Let’s leave no doubt in anybody’s mind that we are fed up and we aren’t going to take it anymore. We are not only tired of the violence in Iraq, but the violence right here on our streets in America. Where are you people who say you want your government back? It will never happen without direct action from us. Begging for it won’t get it, obviously voting for it won’t get it, and praying for it won’t get it. I’m waiting to see who is willing to unbuckle their seatbelt and stand up on the plane that is about to crash and burn…

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/washington/06cong.html

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Mister, “Can you spare a gallon?”

It seems like every year at this time we go through the same gas shortage/high prices phenomenon. This has been going on since I first started driving in 1976, I started late! Did I miss something? I know I am not very smart and don’t claim to be, but why has this problem not been adequately dealt with in 30 years? Why have we allowed the big oil companies to year after year present this same lame excuse for price gouging? Why have our elected officials not been able to or been unwilling to tackle this national problem?

I was in Chicago over the weekend and gas prices were 4.00@gallon. Is it just me or does that seem inordinately high? If every year the oil companies know there will be a larger demand in the summer, why do they not make allowances for this? Can it really be as simple as it is being reported by the media for why gas is so high? I have never been one to accept the status quo so after a little investigating this is what I found out.

There's no doubt that the recent refining share has gone higher, although the share has been higher in the past. (Note: With a higher gasoline price, the spread in dollars is going to be higher even with a constant share.) A quick glance reveals obvious seasonality in the refiner's share. To get a feel for how we stand relative to the same time in previous years, Figure 4 presents the refiner's share over the current and past three years.

Figure 4: Share of gasoline prices associated with refining, in 2007 (blue), in 2006 (red), in 2005 (green), in 2004 (black), in percent. Source: Energy Information Administration.

The graph confirms the impression that the refiner's share has been particularly high for this time of the year, although there have been higher peaks, specifically in 2004.

One bit of policy analysis. The Washington Post article quotes the assertion that the wide spreads are due to policy inaction over the past six years. There is indeed a temptation to ascribe the wide spreads to cartelization, or opportunistic shutdowns of refineries (and I won't rule either of those out -- remember Enron and California in '00-'01...). However, high spreads are also consistent with the view that there is no coordinated reduction of supply and the view that if conservation had been encouraged over the past six years (instead of tax breaks for SUVs), the spread would be smaller. That's because theory predicts that the greater and more inelastic the demand, the greater the resulting price-cost margin.

So one way of thinking about what policies could have mitigated the crack spread is to consider both demand management and supply enhancement. The Administration until recently focused almost solely on the latter.[1]

Basically what is happening is that the oil companies which not only import oil, they also refine the oil, and then they sell the gasoline that is refined from the oil are always looking for ways to increase profit margin. The profit margin in the actual price of crude oil is pretty much stagnant; it is built into whatever the market will bear. All oil companies pay about the same price for crude so there isn’t a lot of room for individual price change, except on a conspiratorial cartel level which the author seems to brush off with little desire to explore. As usual we fell to grasp the obvious in our search for some far fetched analysis of why things are the way they are. The answer is usually something simple; in this case it is; big oil companies wanting to maximize profits at the expense of a captive consumer. It is a known fact that even with gas prices spiraling; demand has not diminished and it does not diminish due to what we drive and how we drive.

I have never understood why no one has ever investigated the link between the American auto industry and big oil. Is it just a coincidence that when the price of gas is at an all-time high the most popular vehicles are SUV’s and other large vehicles? We must not fall for the old scam of “it is a consumer driven market”, the consumer will buy what is presented to them. If there were no SUV’s would consumers demand them? I find it interesting that we have an energy policy that does not deal with two of the most important components of the issue. The fact that we have been sold vehicles that are energy inefficient and that our gas policy is being set by a few giant energy conglomerates. It doesn’t seem to matter who is in power or who is in office, the oil companies keep making money. And we the consumer, keep filling the coffers of those companies despite the hardships it is causing.

The rise in prices is hurting working class and lower-income families the most, as they have less disposable income to shift to transportation costs. This means that the high prices are cutting into other necessary spending, including food, prices for which are also rising throughout the country. An AP poll released May 25 found that 46 percent of the population said that high gasoline prices are causing severe financial problems.

The shortage of refining capacity is generally attributed in the media to a number of planned and unplanned refinery outages. However, refinery capacity has been deliberately decreased over the course of the past two decades, for the explicit purpose of boosting profit margins.

The Journal article notes, “For decades, there was too much refining capacity in the US, margins were crummy and many companies were closing or selling off refineries. In 1986, refiners made little more than $2 for every barrel they processed.” The newspaper quotes Fadel Gheit, a senior energy analyst of Oppenheimer & Co. and a former employee at Mobil, now part of ExxonMobil, as saying, “We used to commission studies to get rid of refineries. We wanted to give them away.”

In the first quarter of the year, refining profits of $1.91 billion at Exxon and $1.62 billion at Chevron have helped generate massive profits for the companies as a whole. Corporations that engage only in refining have done even better.

In the long-term, the high gasoline prices are a product of the conscious policy of the giant oil companies, who, through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the same period, have concentrated the market in the hands of a small number of firms. Inflation-adjusted prices for gasoline in the US were below $2.00 a gallon for most of the late 1980s and 1990s. They only surged above $2.00 in 2004, and have pushed past $3.00 for periods of time in 2005, 2006 and again in 2007.

The ability of energy companies to increase profits simply by raising prices is aided by the fact that demand for gasoline, particularly in the United States, is highly inelastic—i.e., demand does not fluctuate much with changing prices. This is due to the fact that there are few alternatives to automobile transportation, given the absence of viable public transportation systems in many areas. In major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles or Detroit workers have no choice but to drive the often long distances separating homes from work. According to the Census Bureau, only 4.7 percent of the US commuting population takes mass transit to work each day.[2]

It appears that the biggest surge in prices have come under the President with ties to big oil. Am I the only one who finds this disheartening? When will we as Americans stop supporting those who do not share our best interest?

NEWSFLASH – There are other issues in this country besides abortion and gay marriage. While these issues are important to a great many people and I would never attempt to minimize them, we also have to look at the big picture. While the powerful are pushing these “hot button” issues they are stealing the country blind. The sad fact is that these people will not abide by or be affected by whatever the outcome of these will be in court or public opinion. They don’t care if abortion is illegal or legal, if they need to have one they will get one. So while average Joe and Jane are picketing and voting in these corporate and wealthy stooges, the rich keep right on getting richer. These people could care less about the average person; there only loyalty is to money. It is not to race, creed, or color; unless the color is green. They will make money off of anybody or anything. Just think about all those things that were once considered “ethnic” and how they are now being used to sell everything from luxury sedans to diapers.

What is clear is that the rise in prices cannot be explained by a corresponding rise in crude, since crude prices have remained largely flat over the period that gasoline prices have soared.

Several commentators, including the WSWS, noted the coincidence last year between a sharp decline in the gasoline prices and the run-up to the 2006 mid-term elections. According to polls conducted at the time, 42 percent of the American population held the opinion that the price drop was part of a deliberate attempt to manipulate the elections by temporarily decreasing economic insecurity. This was seen as a potential boost to Republican candidates. (See “US gasoline prices; the ‘free market’ and the November elections”)

With the soaring gas prices, the energy companies are now getting back every penny, with interest, that they lost while prices were relatively low in September, October and November.

Even if one were to suppose that there was no element of deliberate manipulation, the situation stands as an indictment of the anarchistic character of the capitalist market, particularly evident in the fluctuations in the prices of basic necessities such as gasoline. An energy policy developed to serve the interests of the population, and not the profits of a handful of energy giants, would involve ensuring an adequate supply and low prices, not to mention substantial investment in public transportation infrastructure. The subordination of the energy market to the demands of profit has also made it impossible to pursue rational energy policy on such issues as global warming.

Under these conditions, the various proposals advanced by the Democrats in Washington are noteworthy only for their cynicism. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would punish anyone found guilty of engaging in price gouging. Others have suggested measures—the same ones suggested and never passed whenever gasoline prices spike—that would temporarily cut federal taxes or create a “windfall profits” tax. Leading Democrats raise these proposals knowing full well they will never pass into law. However, even if they did, they would have no impact on the underlying problem—the domination of a handful of energy companies over a market that affects hundreds of millions of people.[3]

The interesting thing here is that even if we were naïve enough to believe that there were no price gouging, just the fact that one of our most basic needs is being manipulated by such a small group. Just as we have public energy commissions for our other energy concerns, why do we not have one for gasoline? Let the oil companies justify their rate hikes before a group of citizens who are not on the payroll. We should be tired of the same old tricks, where the Democrats hold hearings and protest before the cameras only to leave the thing still broke. They get some mileage from beating up “big oil” and still get to keep their contributions. Is this a great country or what?

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[1] http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/05/gasoline_prices_3.html

[2] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/may2007/gaso-m31.shtml

[3] Ibid

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The End Of Civility?

It began with the first George Bush (Willie Horton) and has continued to this day. Each and every year it keeps getting ratcheted up higher and higher. The American public is being bombarded by it on a nightly basis through the 24 hour news cycle. What is it you ask?

It is the loss of civility in our political discourse. There was a time when we could disagree with someone’s ideas and not be disagreeable. We could debate the merits of ideas without debating the patriotism or the character of the person behind the idea. Why is there so much rancor and demagoguery in our governance? When did it become fashionable to discount ideas not based on their value, but based on what side of the political spectrum they came from? Our political dialog has been in a slow and steady decline for a number of years and no one but those who would seek to divide us gains from it. I wish I could say that it was just one side or the other, but that is not true. We can debate from now ‘til doomsday about who started it, but the fact remains we all are doing it. From the extremes of discussing the sexuality of a candidate to the President being the anti-Christ, it is all demagoguery. Do we have to demonize each other to prove who is right and who is wrong? Is it possible that because someone disagrees with my assessment of the situation it doesn’t mean that they are inherently evil and the devil’s spawn?

I read an editorial that said that we as a nation have become so competitive that this new political reality is merely the out-growth of that. It stated that we generally are as a nation fractured and splintered right down the middle and the red/blue state debates are fueling this animosity. That we are so divided on certain issues that any settlement is next to impossible. These issues are so personal and so basic that there can be no compromise. You are either with us and right or with them and wrong and going to hell! Is this really how the majority of Americans feel? There is also a book that argues this same point, “Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America” by James Davison Hunter. He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues—abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, homosexuality, censorship issues— there had come to be two definable polarities. Furthermore, it was not just that there were a number of divisive issues, but that society had divided along essentially the same lines on each of these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world views.

I for one disagree with this analysis. The problem as I see it is that we have become a society that feeds on entertainment and conflict. We want to be entertained and see a good fight; hence the obsession with reality shows. There is a time and place for that type of entertainment, but our political arena is not it. The issues we face as a nation are too important to settle with name calling and personal attacks. In order for us to overcome these obstacles we will need the cooperation of all Americans. There are extreme groups on both sides of these issues that would have us believe that the lines are drawn so sharply and run so deep that there is no room for compromise, but they are not right. They said the same thing about slavery, integration of our schools, and women voting. It is just that the extremist are always the loudest and the moderates are becoming complacent. We don’t have to completely agree with each other on everything, but we must respect one another in the process of discussion. We will never get anywhere with the politics of demonizing our opponents. Think about it, what can you say after you have identified your opponent as the anti-Christ? Any meaningful discussions are really limited at that point. It is time to end the politics of division and hate. It is time to stop this viscous cycle before it destroys any chance we have to heal this nation. Do I disagree with this administration? You bet I do, but there are some decent and honorable people in this administration and on the other side of the aisle that deserve my respect. Not because they are right and I agree with them but because they are Americans and have the same right of free speech that I do. The American people deserve better than what the political landscape is now providing. There are many able and qualified people who will not enter into the public arena because of this environment. When that happens we all lose.

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Political Courage

I know to look at the headline is to see an incredible oxymoron. How can anyone put political and courage in the same sentence? I believe that the time has come where we must demand courage from our elected officials.

What is courage? I define courage as the following: courage is not, never being afraid, that is foolishness. Courage is even though I am terrified I am going to go on anyway, in spite of my fear. I am going to do this thing, because it is the right thing to do and damn the consequences. There are not many of us with that kind of courage, so it is not surprising that we are not seeing it from our elected officials. Remember, they are merely a reflection of us. However, having said that, it is precisely this type of courage that our troops require of us all at this moment. The time for moral victories and rhetoric has passed. Either we want to end this war or we don’t. We must be clear as a nation; do we think we can win this war? If the answer is no, then we must do what needs to be done regardless of the consequences. If we answer no, then we have a moral imperative to find the best and most humane way to end this. This is no longer about some political “pissing” contest or who is the most resolute in their convictions, it is about life and death.

It has become self-evident that we cannot expect this President or this administration to end this war on their own accord. It also appears that the Republicans have chosen to place party over country and that is a mistake that history will judge very harshly. How can we believe that the same people, who used criminal tactics to get us into this war, will now find the error of their ways and relent to the inevitable. It is not going to happen. We, the American people must and should make plain in no uncertain terms that we want this war to end. We must let this President and his cronies know that we have lost confidence in his leadership and in his word. Up until now there have been no consequences to this Presidents intransigence on this issue. It is now time to bring it to a head, it is time to have the debate we should have had 4 years ago. This debate will not take place unless our elected officials stand firm on the bill they have sent to the President. If he chooses to veto it, then we must continue to resend it until he gets the message. Now, here is where courage comes in. It will be easy to say at that point, “We did our part and he vetoed it” and then concede to the funding without any clear time table for action. We must give the Congress the will and the courage to stand strong in the face of their fear. They will not unless we stand with them. We must contact our lawmakers and let them know that they have our support in this fight. And we must contact those who are supporting this war and let them know that this is not the will of the people.

I have included the links to the Congress and Senate homepage. On these pages you will find links to email your congressman and senator. Let’s encourage them to stand strong on this issue and to not succumb to the bullying tactics that have become synonymous with this administration. The lives of our troops and the lives of the Iraqis are in our hands. When the vote is cast for truth, will you be there? When history finally closes this chapter will you be able to say you stood on the side of action? Or were you too busy watching American Idol to save our troops? The time is now to instead of supporting our troops, let’s begin to save some of them. And our brave service people count on you? Courage!

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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I Don’t Recall

Is there any better defense in the whole world than, “I don’t recall or remember”? I recently spoke to an attorney friend of mine and he said the key to political survival is “plausible deniability”.

In laymen’s terms that simply means that your, “I don’t remember that conversation or briefing “can be convincing in the absence of proof to the contrary. It appears that every politician or business executive worth his weight in salt has learned this valuable lesson. By saying, “I don’t remember” technically you are not committing perjury or lying because who can say if you remember or not? Everyone knows we all have different levels of concentration and recall. There is the level when a co-worker is painfully describing his exciting vacation to the Maple Leaf Festival in Des Moines, there is the level when your wife is describing how she dented the car, and there is the level when the doctor tells you, you have cancer.

It amazes me how these men who have built illustrious careers based on their levels of concentration can at a moment’s notice all of a sudden not remember some of the most crucial information used to make major decisions. How have these men risen to these top echelons of power and yet be so incompetent? Or is it incompetence? Maybe these guys are using the “crazy like a fox” defense.

I have a theory as to how these guys are able to pull off this seemingly uncharacteristic lost of reason. Those posing the questions do not seem to viscously attack the absurdity of this notion for fear that someday they will need this “selective amnesia” escape clause. We cannot expect the wolves to guard the hen house. We the people must let it be known once and for all that we will no longer accept this answer as plausible or acceptable. We cannot guarantee who remembers what, but what we can do is get rid of them anyway for being so incompetent. It seems like every week there is a parade of politicians or executives having memory loss. No more; if you cannot remember then you need to be retired or fired. There are plenty of people in this country who still have some degree of recall left. As long as we passively allow these charlatans to continue to hide behind this cowardice we will never get to the truth about anything.

Granted there are some things I have forgotten; but I remember every person I ever fired and why. I remember every lame brained scheme I ever tried that failed and it cost me money, not billions but hundreds. I remember every time I cheated on my wives. The point is that there are certain things no matter how hard I try to forget I can’t and there are some things no matter how hard I try to remember I can’t. However, there are also some things I remember that I would rather forget for fear of exposure to the public eye. This is not amnesia, it is cowardice. One is excusable, the other is not. If you were man enough to conceive of these things, be man enough to own them. Why is it that success is the child of many fathers and failure is the bastard child? What irks me the most about these guys is not that they are ashamed for what they have done or proposed, but the fact that they got caught doing it. I guess there is no honor among thieves?

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